Phantom Cinema

2016/25min/HD

Nowadays, cinema has closed one after another. “Premiere Cinema” in Meinong, which opened in 1969 and closed in 1991, had built collective memories for people in town. These faded traces once nourished someone’s dreams where fairies still dance, where laughter and tear reechoes.

This film develops in remains of cinema, where past usher walks to and fro holding a flashlight in darkness and ticket agent counted tickets day after day; the past scenes has its romance, fright, pain, lust and bitterness. The cinema is a miniature of the universe, those who were lived for it and fascinated with it are still lingering in this space, in this dream and doesn’t wake up.

The last part of film is story of Chung Hao-tong, the story is a wound that people refused to speak of for a long while, and not many remembered now. It was a taboo for cinema once, and now I perform it through this work in remembrance of his spirit.

戲院已經成為一個廢墟，然而裡面還殘留著許多痕跡，電影事業當初就以光影鏤刻痕跡的技術而興盛，如今戲院一家一家倒閉。於1969年開張，1991年結束營業的「第一戲院」就是美濃鎮上許多人的共同記憶。這些逐漸褪去的痕跡，曾經滋養了許多人的夢，在其中，精靈還起舞著，彷彿笑聲與淚水還迴盪在期間。

本片以戲院廢墟做發想，黑暗中過去的持手電筒的帶位者在裡面穿梭，售票員還一張張地數著，過去的風光。浪漫、驚悚，情色、苦痛，有榮耀，也有辛酸。戲院是一個小宇宙的縮影，而這些以電影為生，迷戀電影的人，還徘徊在這個空間，沒有散去。在灰塵揚起，在雷雨之夜，紛紛出籠。電影是一個集體的夢，而這個夢還沒醒。

影片最後觸及一個傷口，鍾浩東的故事。過去曾有一段時間人們不願意提起，現在甚至也未曾記得的美濃人故事。它曾是電影裡的禁忌，藉著這個創作，我將它重新搬演，以茲紀念。